1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to on-line communication systems, and more particularly to a system and method for automatically customizing a web page on the World Wide Web based on information relating to a previous web page visited by a user or search terms input by the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the amount of commerce being conducted using distributed networks of computers, such as the Internet, has substantially increased. Many businesses typically provide an Internet site on the World Wide Web (WWW) to promote their products and services. These sites allow the merchant to economically reach a vast number of potential customers with very little cost. Additionally, customers are able to review merchandise and services from a large number of vendors simply with a few key strokes of their computer and clicks of the mouse.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system in which a customer can utilize the World Wide Web to browse various web sites. A user terminal 10, such as for example a personal computer or other data processing device, is coupled to the Internet 14 via an Internet provider gateway 12. Interfaces between user terminal 10 and gateway 12 are well known in the art, and typically include a modem (not shown) or other gateway provider connection. The user terminal 10 may be employed by a user to search the WWW with a web browser in a conventional manner and communicate with one or more remotely located web servers 16, 17. Representative browsers include, among others, Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer or the like. While only two web servers 16, 17 are shown, it is to be understood that the World Wide Web is a collection of a number of web servers of the Internet. Each web server 16, 17 supports clients, such as vendors, and provides information via numerous web sites. Each web site is maintained and used by a specific vendor to advertise different products or services from that vendor. Each web site may consist of one or more web pages, such as Active Server Pages (ASPs), in which the different products or services are advertised similarly to pages of a conventional catalogue. Each web server 16, 17 may support a web site for one or more vendors.
In the WWW environment, user terminal 10 effects transactions to web servers 16, 17 using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files, e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc., using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify xe2x80x9clinksxe2x80x9d to other servers and files. Within the Internet, a network path to a web server is identified by a Universal Resource Locator (URL), which defines an electronic path to a resource such as a file, program, directory or web site on the Internet. Use of an HTML-compatible browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator) at user terminal 10 involves specification of a link via the URL. In response, the user terminal 10 makes a request to the server identified in the link, such as for example server 16, and receives in return a document formatted according to HTML.
Although the popularity of the Internet has provided tremendous potential for vendors to market goods and services, for some companies advertising their wares and services through a web site on the Internet has not proven to be very effective. One of the difficulties with advertising on the Internet is directing consumers to visit a particular web site. The overabundance of web site locations has created an information overload for many consumers. The information overload may cause consumers to quickly scan only the first web page they land on in a first web site and move on to a second web site without ever exploring other web pages within the first web site. This could result in a loss of customers to other vendors and a resulting loss in sales.
It would be beneficial for a vendor to be able to customize his web site, and particularly the web page, on which a web customer lands to provide some incentive for the customer to remain in the vendor""s web site and to purchase goods and/or services from that vendor. This would be especially beneficial if the tracking of the navigational path of the customer indicates the customer has just come from a competitor""s web site or was brought to the web site by a search engine, and thus may be comparison shopping for a product or service. Tracking of navigational paths on the WWW is known in the art. For example, for a description of tracking of navigational paths, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,860, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Tracking the Navigation Path of a User on the World Wide Webxe2x80x9d and U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,979, entitled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Attaching Navigational History Information to Universal Resource Locator Links on a World Wide Web.xe2x80x9d These references are expressly incorporated by reference herein.
Thus, there exists a need for a system and method of customizing a web page in a vendor""s web site, based on a customer""s previous location or terms used in a search, to provide incentives for the customer to remain in that vendor""s web site and purchase goods and/or services from that vendor.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for automatically customizing a web page in a vendor""s web site, based on a customer""s previous location or terms used in a search by the customer, to provide incentives for the customer to remain in that vendor""s web site and purchase goods and/or services from that vendor.
When a customer lands on a vendor""s web site, the customer""s web browser reports the referring Universal Resource Locator (URL) to the vendor""s web site. In accordance with the present invention, the URL is parsed and examined by the vendor""s web site to determine the web site the customer previously was visiting or, if directed to the vendor""s web site by a search engine, the terms used by the customer for the search. The terms included in the referring URL are compared with terms previously stored in a database. If any of the terms in the referring URL match a term stored in the database, the vendor""s web page can be customized with special promotional offers or coupons related to the information retrieved from the parsed URL. This customization increases the chances of retaining the customer in the web site and inducing the customer to make a purchase of goods and/or services from that vendor.
These and other advantages and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention which is provided in connection with the accompanying drawings.